Leaving the Netherlands: your exit checklist, in order

2 to 3 months before you leave

1. Give notice on your rental. Your contract states the notice period; for tenants it is usually 1 month. Send it by registered letter, or by email with a confirmation of receipt. A fixed-term contract of 2 years or less can be ended early; one longer than 2 years cannot.
2. Set up DigiD for life abroad. Your DigiD keeps working after you leave, but only if you can log in from there. Install the DigiD app with the ID check, and add your mobile number with SMS verification on. Changing numbers? Update DigiD before you cancel the old one. You need DigiD for the M return, Mijn toeslagen and your pension overview.
3. Check your energy contract. Moving abroad does not cancel a fixed-term contract, and leaving early can cost a cancellation fee. Ask your supplier for the amount now.
4. Arrange health insurance in your new country from the day after you deregister, so there is no gap.
5. Decide on the car: sell it here, or export it (see below).
6. Get quotes from movers. International removals book up weeks ahead, especially in summer.

Only a few suitcases or boxes? A luggage shipper like Send My Bag is usually cheaper than a mover or excess baggage.

The last weeks

Deregister at the gemeente

You must deregister if you will live abroad for more than 8 months in the coming year, even if you keep a home here. By law the window opens on the fifth day before you leave; some gemeenten accept notice a few weeks earlier, so check yours. Give your foreign address if you have one: the gemeente moves you to the Registration of Non-Residents (RNI) and passes the address on to the Belastingdienst, the SVB and your pension fund. Ask for proof of deregistration while you are still here.

Do not deregister weeks early. Your deregistration date ends your health insurance and your right to most toeslagen.

End your health insurance on the deregistration date

Dutch basic insurance is for people who live or work here. Once you are deregistered and not working in the Netherlands, you are no longer insured, even if you keep paying the premium. Give your insurer your deregistration date and ask for written confirmation of the end date. Your European Health Insurance Card stops working too.

• Still working for a Dutch employer? Then you usually stay insured here and keep the policy.
• Moving to a treaty country with a Dutch pension or benefit? You register with the CAK, which gives you healthcare in your new country.

Your supplementary policy follows the insurer's own rules; cancel it at the same time. More on how Dutch insurance works in our health insurance guide.

Stop your toeslagen

Stop them in Mijn toeslagen before you go. Toeslagen are advances: anything paid for months you no longer qualify comes back as a repayment in the final calculation, often more than a year later.

• Huurtoeslag ends: you have no right to it once you live abroad. If you are owed money for the months you lived here, the final calculation pays it out. Check your last months with the huurtoeslag calculator.
• Zorgtoeslag ends with your Dutch health insurance. You keep it only if you stay insured here.
• Kinderopvangtoeslag can continue abroad in some cases; check the conditions or stop it.
• Kindgebonden budget continues only if you keep getting child benefit from the SVB. To stop it, call the BelastingTelefoon: you cannot do it in Mijn toeslagen.

Close the home

• Energy, internet and water: cancel to your moving date and photograph the meters on the day you hand over the keys. Your energy supplier sends a final bill within 6 weeks.
• Municipal and water board taxes: the gemeente and waterschap bill per year. Many gemeenten reduce or refund the waste levy for the months after you leave, sometimes only on request. Check with your gemeente's tax office.
• Handover: walk through the home with the landlord, photograph every room, and agree in writing when your deposit comes back and to which account.
• Mail: set up forwarding, and give your new address to your bank, insurers and pension fund.

Export or deregister your car

Taking a Dutch-registered car abroad for good? Register it for export at the RDW (€12 at an RDW location, or an approved company at its own fee). Bring ID, the registration card and the number plates. You get an export document to register the car in your new country, and can drive 14 days on white export plates. Insurance, road tax (MRB) and the APK stop only after the export is registered. Leaving the EU or EEA? Also file an export declaration with Douane. Ask your new country which documents it needs before you deregister.

After you leave

File the M return for the year you left

For the year you leave, you file the M return (M for migration) instead of the normal return, online in Mijn Belastingdienst or on the paper M form. It opens later than the normal return: for 2025, the M return opened on 1 May 2026. Check the Belastingdienst for the year you leave. It covers your worldwide income for the months you lived here, and your Dutch income after.

Exit tax. On emigration the Belastingdienst can issue a protective assessment (conserverende aanslag) on Dutch pension, annuities and a substantial interest (5% or more) in a company. You do not pay it as long as you follow the rules, for example by not cashing out your pension. Most are valid for 10 years; one on a substantial interest has no end date. If this applies to you, read the Belastingdienst page or get a tax adviser. Checked 10 October 2026.

AOW and your employer pension

You build up AOW (state pension) for each year you are insured, which usually means each year you live or work here. Each year you are not insured cuts your AOW by 2%. To keep building it up, apply for voluntary insurance with the SVB, before you leave or within 1 year after. You must have been insured for at least a full year before leaving, and can usually continue for up to 10 years. You pay a contribution based on your income.

Your employer pension stays with the pension fund and is paid from your pension age, also abroad. It usually cannot be cashed out early. Give the fund your new address and download your overview from mijnpensioenoverzicht.nl while DigiD still works.

Your Dutch bank account and moving money

Keep your Dutch account open until the deposit, the final toeslagen calculation and any tax refund have arrived. Ask your bank before you leave whether it keeps accounts for residents of your new country: policies differ by bank and country.

Moving your savings in one go? Dutch banks convert at their own exchange rate plus a fee. With Wise you see the mid-market rate and the fee before you send, and a Wise account can receive euros after your Dutch account is closed.

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